GRAPE-VIN T E. 193 



The advantage of keeping particular wines was well 

 known to the Romans. 



Est mihi nonum superantis annum, 

 Plenus Albani cadus. 



Hor. 



" Phillis, this Alban cask is thine, 

 Mellow'd by summers more than nine." 



Pliny mentions having met with wines in his time that 

 were made in the consulship of Opimius, which was 

 almost two hundred years before. This author says, 

 " there was a wine made at Vienna which sold the dearest: 

 it had," says he, " the taste of pitch, and it is reputed 

 cooler than other wines, and was therefore given to allay 

 fever." 



The Hungarian wines, if not sent to us in great quantities, 

 are made up in quality, if we may judge by the price of 

 tokay. At the sale of the Duke of Queensberry's wine, 

 in 18 , the tokay sold for one hundred and fifty pounds 

 per dozen, which is about a guinea a glass. The tokay 

 made at Johanneski, in Poland, of the vintage of 1811, 

 was sold on the spot for four thousand florins the cask 

 of eight ohms, which is equal to twenty-seven shillings 

 per gallon.- 



Spain furnishes us with sherry, paxeretta, mountain, 

 tent, &c. Mr. Swinburn mentions, in his account of 

 Spain, that in plentiful seasons the vineyards are so pro- 

 ductive, that casks cannot be found to contain the wine ; 

 and that many vineyards remain ungathered, notwith- 

 standing public notice being stuck on the church doors, 

 that all who choose may gather, by paying a small ac- 

 knowledgment. Those who are afflicted with bilious 

 complaints should drink good sherry, in preference to all 

 other wines, it being less likely to turn acid on the 

 stomach. 



